Kuala Lumpur Railway Station – an Architectural Jewel

Architecture is very important in the structure of a city because it affects the public image and reflects people’s opinions about that particular place. Nice and original architecture can attract lots of tourists and improve the trade and life in a certain area. Well, I am the best example: I copnsider myself a pretty informed person, but I only know that Kuala Lumpur is Malaysia’s capital … and the fact that it has a great railway station, built in an original style.

First of all this railway station is white and I simply love white buildings, as they make the whole city around look clean and fresh. Then it looks more like a palace than a railway station and combines many architectural styles, resulting in a very original yet pleasant looking building.

It was opened to the public in 1886, rebuilt in 1910 and electrified in 1995. Of course it looks a lot different from what it was in the beginning, because it served only four lines with three platforms at first, now having a real web of lines in all directions. It added some wings in time and combines in a very successful manner the Western with the Oriental architectural style.

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Specialists say that it was primarily designed in a “Raj” style, meaning a combination of European and American elements from the beginning of the 19th century with elements of Mughal or Indo-Saracenic architecture. The building is characterized by the large towers built in a Malayan traditional way , having the facade of the station completely plastered and the platforms covered with glass shelters supported by steel frames. If you visit this station you will feel like the past and the present have met there and also the West and the East.